“Andres Bonifacio: Maypagasa” (Sesquicentennial Tribute)

Program: Cheche Lazaro Presents (Episode 19)
Presented by: Unlimited Productions, Inc. and ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs
Aired on: November 23, 2013 (ABS-CBN Sunday’s Best)

VIDEO LINK: http://www.probetv.com/2014/04/clp-19-andres-bonifacio-maypagasa/
SYNOPSIS

Next to Dr. Jose Rizal, he is the second most popular national hero, yet there is scant verified information about Andres Bonifacio, founder and Supremo of the Katipunan; the father of the Philippine revolution. From his looks down to the circumstances of his death, details about Bonifacio’s life have been subject to so much speculation and controversy.

On his 150th birth anniversary, Cheche Lazaro Presents celebrates the life of the hero who espoused armed resistance against the colonial power and died in the hands of his fellow Filipino revolutionaries.

In an hour-and-a-half-documentary, broadcast journalist Cheche Lazaro joins historians and descendants of members of the Katipunan who worked with or crossed the path of Bonifacio in piecing together a more accurate picture of the tragic hero — his views, and the revolution that he led. Their accounts, which sometimes contradict “traditional” history books, provide a new perspective to the Bonifacio and the Katipunan that most Filipinos never knew.

Of great significance in the retelling of Bonifacio’s life and times is the documentary’s use of new information from the Archivo General de Madrid about the Katipunan. More-than-a-century-old, the documents are written in Tagalog and turned over by Spain to the National Historical Commission of the Philippines. These included correspondence among the Katipunan hierarchy such as Bonifacio, Emilio Jacinto, Dr. Pio Valenzuela as well as ordinary Katipons or Katipuneros.

By itself, the archive documents have the effect of rewriting portions of Philippine history. Among other things, it debunks the prevailing belief that Rizal’s La Liga Filipina was a precursor of the Katipunan. Six months before the birth of La Liga Filipina, Bonifacio’s Katipunan was already in place with a clear vision and organized system of government guided by strict morals.

History is replete with so many gaps, inconsistencies, and perhaps, in some instances, untruths. The story of Andres Bonifacio, aka May Pag-asa, the Katipunan and the 1896 Revolution deserves another retelling — even if it is more than a century later.